Annie Favia and Andy Erickson have combined their talents with the Favia label. Annie Favia and Andy Erickson are top viticulturists and winemakers in Napa, Calif. They live on the east side of Napa and have established their own wine, Favia.

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

Annie Favia and Andy Erickson have combined their talents with the...

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Andy Erickson (left) and Annie Favia in their Sauvignon Blanc vineyard in front of their home Tuesday May 18, 2010. The little blue juice containers protect the young vines from local critters. Annie Favia and Andy Erickson are top viticulturists and winemakers in Napa, Calif. They live on the east side of Napa and have established their own wine, Favia.

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

Andy Erickson (left) and Annie Favia in their Sauvignon Blanc...

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A view of the Sauvignon Blanc vineyard, which currently uses blue juice containers to protect the vines. In the background is the couples home and garden. Annie Favia and Andy Erickson are top viticulturists and winemakers in Napa, Calif. They live on the east side of Napa and have established their own wine, Favia.

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

A view of the Sauvignon Blanc vineyard, which currently uses blue...

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Andy Erickson (left) and Annie Favia walked through their garden Tuesday May 18, 2010. Their Sauvignon Blanc vineyard is in the background. Annie Favia and Andy Erickson are top viticulturists and winemakers in Napa, Calif. They live on the east side of Napa and have established their own wine, Favia.

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

Andy Erickson (left) and Annie Favia walked through their garden...

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Annie Favia picks sweet pea flowers near her home Tuesday May 18, 2010. Annie Favia and Andy Erickson are top viticulturists and winemakers in Napa, Calif. They live on the east side of Napa and have established their own wine, Favia.

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

Annie Favia picks sweet pea flowers near her home Tuesday May 18,...

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Annie Favia (left) and Andy Erickson hug near their outdoor cooking area under a huge oak tree Tuesday May 18, 2010. Their home is in the background. Annie Favia and Andy Erickson are top viticulturists and winemakers in Napa, Calif. They live on the east side of Napa and have established their own wine, Favia.

As a winemaker, Andy has skimmed the absolute top of Napa's cream: Screaming Eagle, Dalla Valle, Ovid, Dancing Hares and Arietta. Annie cut her teeth under John Kongsgaard and Cathy Corison before working out in the vineyards with David Abreu, viticulturist to the brightest stars in Napa's firmament (Harlan Estate, Bryant Family and several of Erickson's clients). Together they could probably create a 98-point wine in their sleep.

There are plenty of power couples in Napa, but after providing fame for a lot of grateful clients, Favia and Erickson are having their own fun. After a dozen years of loyal service with Abreu, Annie, 38, this year began to work full-time on Favia wines in addition to raising their daughters, Josephine and Madeline. Andy, 43, is adding to his projects by opening a diagnostic wine lab in St. Helena, giving valley winemakers a much-needed resource.

"It's a really incredible luxury in your life to have the time to be able to focus on one thing," Favia says. "There's always room for improvement. There's always room to learn more and experiment more. And that's the exciting thing about Favia, is we get to really push the limits."

The two are a study in contrasts. Erickson is thoughtful and subdued, never with a wasted motion. Favia is a blitz of energy, always juggling innumerable projects and details.

The Favia wines aren't everyday fare, but given the couple's joint resumé, the prices (starting around $65) are by no means out of line. A half-dozen bottlings are split between Rhone-style Amador County efforts and more traditional reds from Napa. And the label grew out of their basement, literally, where they made the first few vintages of their own wine, starting in 1996; in 2001 they stepped up, making a few unreleased lots at Andy's day job with Staglin Family Vineyard. Only with the 2003 vintage were their wines, a Russian River Valley Pinot Noir and two Napa blends, shared with the world.

Their Napa wines capitalize on their connections over the years. The Magdalena, a mix of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, hails from Abreu's Madrona Ranch property near Spring Mountain. There's also the Cerro Sur, a similar blend but with 72 percent Cabernet Franc, from the Rancho Chimiles property in Coombsville, east of Napa city, and a 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon from near their house.

The Amador wines are a bit more rowdy, and that's where the real innovation lies. All come from the Shake Ridge ranch run by veteran viticulturist Ann Kraemer, one of the Sierra foothills' rising-star sites (see sfgate.com/ZJUU). The Quarzo Syrah is more traditional, full of smoky violet aromas, while the Rompecabezas, a southern Rhone-style mix, is full of silken strawberry flavors from hearty Grenache fruit (Syrah and Mourvedre make up the rest). And there's a luscious Viognier, Suize, packed with sweet fruit from Kraemer's sunny site.

"The winemaking on all the wines is seriously just in the vineyard," Favia says.

Indeed, there is complex cellar work behind the Favia bottles. The Quarzo gets three different fermentations, one from whole grape clusters, one more traditional, and a third with a bit of Viognier cofermented. The Rompecabezas ("jigsaw puzzle" in Spanish) is aged in a combination of barrels and ovoid concrete eggs.

These concepts are relatively low-key. That isn't to say fully old-fashioned: Fruit for Favia's Napa bottlings gets a weeklong cold soak to extract flavors before the tank is warmed up to begin fermentation with indigenous yeasts, typically for two to three weeks. But Erickson won't add acid or tannin, and his sole experience with filtering techniques like reverse osmosis prompted him to declassify the resulting wines.

"It's really luxurious to be able to make a wine you don't have to mess with," Favia says.

They typically try to pick reds with sugar around 25 Brix - robust, but in with the ripe style that propelled their careers - and make the wines pretty much as they want.

"We don't have to explain ourselves. If it doesn't work out, we just don't bottle it," Erickson says.

At their home off Silverado Trail in Napa, not far from Mount George, work talents get shifted into hobby form. A lesson? Do not try and stop a viticulturist from farming. Near their outdoor kitchen, you might note the bluebird boxes and honeybee hive, an orchard of 28 fruit trees, trellised raspberries, sweet pea vines, Chinese tea plants, raised garden beds and chicken coop full of Cochins, Rhode Island Reds and Araucanas. Also the acre of Sauvignon Blanc vines that are, effectively, their front yard.

Of course, Favia being Favia, this is no simple gardening project. Vines are planted on drought-tolerant rootstock and dry farmed; seven soil pits were dug before vines went in. There will be life beyond Cabernet.

"I could drink 50 cases of white wine in a year," Favia says.

But, much of Favia right now is red, including the Napa blends - both of which rely heavily on Cabernet Franc, a sign these are winemaker's wines. They get about 22 months of barrel age - often in three-quarters new oak for the Napa wines, though Erickson insists the fruit can support that - plus another 12 to 16 months in bottle to settle and evolve.

As a bonus, there is the intentionally low-key Leviathan label, Erickson's other project, now coming into its fourth vintage. His connection to this kitchen-sink blend isn't meant to be highlighted. But at $48 a bottle, it offers more humble access to trophy-level winemaking.

What next? A winery of their own or vineyard beyond the front yard, maybe. But for Favia, at least, just having the freedom for the couple to make their own decisions is reward enough.

"The goal is balance, balance in your wines and balance in your life," she says. "And right now there's balance to me."